DEH GAH GOT'IE KOE/FORT PROVIDENCE
Organizations, small businesses and community members swarmed the Snowshoe Inn parking lot on June 13 for the second annual Spring Fling.

Elaine Landry joined other children from Deh Gah School on June 13 for Fort Providence's second annual Spring Fling. To the right, Const. Mike Jarecki stops to peruse some items. - photo courtesy of Deh Gah School

A sale styled after East-Coast flea markets, the Spring Fling was the brainchild of Fort Providence resident Linda Croft. Croft has lived in the area for 11 years after moving from Nova Scotia, and created the sale in part because of her love of shopping and in part because it reminded her of Nova Scotia.

The Snowshoe Inn provided space and tables free of charge for vendors and fundraisers to use. Croft said there were about a dozen vendors - not quite as many as last year - but the event still brought in hundreds of community members.

"I think everybody in the community dropped by," she said.

"We wanted this to just be a fun day where you come in, set up and all you have to bring is yourself and your stuff, and everything else was already here."

Deh Gah School had a table of its own for the Anime/Cartoon Club. Members of the club are fundraising for an Animethon in Edmonton at the end of August.

To help with costs of that, club members sold plants, hamburgers and hotdogs.

"Our kids are very involved; they've been participating in creating budgets and they're really putting a lot of time and effort in," said teacher Cara Gordon, who oversees the club.

Some of the students also cashed in on their artistic talents by selling cartoons they had created.

Gordon said the plants were grown by science teacher James Hatch as part of the class curriculum.

In total, students brought in about $150 during the event, making the amount they've raised for the Animethon to about $1,000 - one third of their goal.

"I'm trying to put the onus on the students to fundraise, and they're being very proactive," Gordon said.

Currently, the Anime/Cartoon club has five members: Lynsey Landry, Elaine Landry, Jamal Simba, Dakota Nadli and Morgan Elleze.

The students hold a weekly meeting each Friday after school, where they are often visited by younger kids.

"The club has been around for almost two years now," said Lynsey Landry, who started the club with her sister Elaine.

"It's important because it opens a new door to younger kids, so they can see the outside world through different media. It also helps them to enhance their drawing skills."

Landry, 20, said the club works with the school but often "does its own thing."

"As a club, we design the schedule of events that we are running. We plan and organize these events as a team and I take the lead," she said. The club holds plenty of events and even applied for funding to do a Get Active program with elders, Gordon said.

"They brought over some board games and healthy snacks, and arranged lessons for the elders, and sent out invitations for them. They're really eager and enthusiastic about the club," she said.

Some of the students are also considering taking part in a community-wide yard sale scheduled for June 28 in order to raise more funds for the Animethon.

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